"Knocked Up" director slapped with lawsuit

Judd Apatow, whose Knocked Up made its debut last weekend, has been sued by a Canadian author for copyright infringement. The lawsuit, filed by Rebecca Eckler in January against Apatow and NBC Universal, claims that the comedy bears many similarities to Eckler’s 2004 book, also called Knocked Up; both happen to be about an up-and-coming journalist who drinks too much at a party and then gets pregnant. Eckler also claims that she learned about the film project while pitching her book, and that the film screenplay even had the same picture as the book’s cover. Apatow said, in a statement released to a celebrity site, that the book and film were “two different stories about a common experience.”